THE TWO ORDINANCES OF CHRISTIANITY BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER
J. Wright
Romans 6: 1–14, 18–23; 1 Corinthians 11: 23–28
I would like to speak of the two ordinances that we have in Christianity, that is, baptism and the Lord’s supper. I refer back to something that was said in the reading as to Philadelphia, that is that the Lord would keep them out of the hour of trial which was about to come upon the habitable world, and included in that He would keep the saints at the present time from the moral evil which necessitates that hour of trial. It is evident that moral evil already exists; I know that things will get worse when the church is taken but that moral evil already exists.
It has been suggested that the Lord uses baptism and the Lord’s supper to help us to be free from that evil. I know there is much more in baptism and the Lord’s supper than that, but I want to go over these things. These ordinances would be just dead to us if we did not have faith, and if we did not take them up in love for the Lord. The Lord’s death is brought before us in both these ordinances. The emblems before us on Lord’s day remind us that the Lord has been into death, He has been there in love for us. He is not there now. The One whom we remember is a living Lord but we remember Him, He is absent. It is the absence of Christ which is a test to us. Not only is He absent from this scene but He has been rejected, cast out as worthless by men.
I think that brings home to us the need of baptism. Most of us would have been baptised when we were infants; somebody else did it for us, it is what somebody else does for us even if we are baptised as adults. I think that the import, the meaning of baptism needs to be understood by us, because we need to be in accord with our baptism. The teaching of baptism is brought out in this chapter, in Romans 6, and the exercises of the believer are beginning to develop in this epistle. In the earlier part of the epistle the apostle is bringing home to us what God is towards us, and that needs to be understood and appreciated by us. It comes home to us in the gospel what God is towards us, and we need to get it into the soul that He is for us. Paul says later, “If God be for us, who against us?”, Romans 8: 31. God is for us, even while we were sinners God was for us. While we were sinners Christ died for us. God displays His love, what He is towards us while we were still sinners; not because we were sinners but despite the fact that we were sinners God loves us and He has given His Son; the Lord Jesus has died for us. In these earlier chapters we have the “righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ towards all, and upon all those who believe”, Romans 3: 22. That is not against us, it is for us, it is to cover us and make us suited for God’s presence. The righteousness of God is witnessed in the Saviour’s blood, the blood of the Lord Jesus. What a cost it is! God has set Christ forth as a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. Then we get the power of God seen in the resurrection of Jesus; that is towards us, it is for us.
These things would be seen typically in the teaching in Exodus as to God’s people; the blood of the passover lamb and the Red Sea. The Red Sea is illustrative of what baptism is, as God is for us. God is known as a Saviour God in the Red Sea, He is for us. The Lord Jesus as going into death was for us. The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus speaks of God’s power which is towards us to deliver us. Being true to baptism would be that we are delivered from the world, delivered from the system of sin which dominates the world. The world is dominated by that principle of sin which is lawlessness, man doing his own will. It is the dominating principle in the world. We need to be delivered from these things and baptism, as understanding it, would enable us to be free from the world.
In Hebrews 11 the only thing which is said to be done by the children of Israel is “By faith they passed through the Red Sea” (Hebrews 11: 29); they took it up in faith. Although they doubted to start with, they took God at His word, they moved in obedience and saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore.
Well, baptism means that we identify ourselves with the Lord Jesus. I wonder if every heart here is won for Christ. If you contemplate His death, where He has been, surely it is intended to affect your heart and win your heart for Christ. We cannot be half-hearted about these things. We cannot try and put one foot in the world and have one foot for Christ. When Moses spoke to Pharaoh about Israel leaving Egypt he said, “there shall not a hoof be left behind” (Exodus 10: 26), nothing should be left behind; they were all to go, the young ones as well. And going through the Red Sea, getting out of Egypt there was no going back. They thought about going back when testings came along in the wilderness but there was no going back. They did not go back. Beloved brethren, there is to be no going back. Baptism means that, you do not go back to the world; it is under judgment, it is a sphere of bondage.
It has been said that baptism brings us into the wilderness and the Lord’s supper sustains us in it. The Lord’s supper is taken in the wilderness. It leads us into something greater, it leads us into the service of God which is in the land. The greatest privileges we have follow the Lord’s supper. It is a great privilege to have part in the Lord’s supper, in remembrance of Him. It is in the wilderness. Why is it in the wilderness? Because the Lord Jesus is absent; that is what makes the world a wilderness to us. Why is He absent? Because He has been rejected. He is coming again. He says, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”, John 14: 18. The Lord comes to His own at the Supper as we gather, but I want to speak first of all of baptism. That is, we are identified with Christ in His death. If we have been baptised unto Christ Jesus we have been baptised unto His death. It is the way the Lord Jesus went out of the world publicly, He went out of the world publicly by the way of His death. And what a death it was. It was the death of the cross, with the shame and ignominy of it. That is the way the Lord Jesus went out of the world. The way that the believer goes out of the world is being identified with Him in His death and that is a public matter. Baptism is a public matter; it is not a private matter. That is, I am publicly identified with the Lord Jesus in His death, and I am separate from the world; I turn my back on it, it is deliverance. If we are to be kept from the evil that is in the world morally, that will bring in the awful judgment that will come actually in the hour of trial, we need to be identified with the Lord Jesus in His death.
The exercises in this section of Romans are related to persons who begin to consider for God and consider for Christ. In faith and in affection they lay hold of what God is towards them, and they want to be here for God. Do you want to be here for God or do you want to be here for yourself doing your own will? If we do things and please ourselves there is no pleasure in it. There are pleasures of sin for a season. Yes, but Moses turned his back on the world. He was baptised typically as an infant when his parents put him in the ark in the sedge by the river but he answered to that, he came to it himself. When he came of years he answered to it.
He identified himself with the people of God. To be identified with the Lord Jesus in His death would include being identified with the people of God. We are identified with the Lord Jesus in His death, and we are to be consistent with His death. His death has separated us from this world and all that is in it. You might say about something, Is it harmful, can I do it? Is the Lord Jesus in it? If not, why should I be involved in it? He is not in this world, the Lord Jesus is not here, He is absent. That is what makes this scene a wilderness to us. That is where we prove the resources of God. I cannot go into all the detail in this chapter but you can read it for yourself; go over it prayerfully as to really what baptism means, but I think it works out from real affection for the Lord. The Ethiopian eunuch’s heart was won for Christ when from that chapter in Isaiah 53 Philip evangelised the glad tidings of Jesus to him.
As mentioned earlier in the reading, it is Jesus Himself who is coming for His own. In Thessalonians it is Jesus who is spoken of, that blessed Man, a different kind of Man from any other. The world is going to have its man soon, it is leading up to that. It is going to have its superman, who will settle the problems in the world as they think, but he will sit down in the temple of God and exalt himself as God. That is the kind of man that the world is going to have, a hero. The world loves its heroes and it develops that kind of thing in persons. It develops it in youth, the sports world has its heroes. What kind of men are they? The Lord Jesus is a different kind of Man; the glad tidings of Jesus tell us of the Man who will deliver us from any other man. Not only do we need to be delivered from the world as a system, but we need to be delivered from the kind of man that is in the world, because the world after all is made up of men and women, the kind of persons they are as away from God.
I would like to refer to this expression “even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father”. It is a wonderful thing that the Lord Jesus has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father. It was a wonderful thing that the Lord Jesus was among the dead, for three days and three nights. Why was the Lord Jesus among the dead? It should affect every heart that He was there. What did it mean to the Father that His Son was among the dead for three days and three nights? The Father was without Christ in that sense, He was among the dead. But the Father operated in His glory and raised Him from among the dead. He did that on the first day of the week. The Father was at the tomb before anyone else and raised Jesus. He raised Him by His glory. His power and His love would enter into that. He was going to have His Son in a scene of glory with Him beyond death.
Think of the Father having the Lord Jesus there in His presence out of this scene altogether, in His own presence, there for His complacent delight. The Father raised Him by His glory, “so we also should walk in newness of life”. We should be here, beloved brethren, for the pleasure of the Father, having a different character of walk from what was ever seen. Think of the walk of the Lord Jesus. Did anyone ever walk like the Lord Jesus walked? John the baptist saw Him as He walked and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God”. What a walk, the walk of Jesus! Well there will be some reflection of Him in that, even here, there are persons who walk in newness of life. They are not now considering for themselves, but they are thinking of God and they are able to do this by the power of the Spirit.
We have to take these chapters Romans 6, 7 and 8 together, and what we have in this chapter is deliverance from the system of sin, the principle of sin that operates in the world. In chapter 7 we find that that sin is in us, it operates in us and we have no power to meet it, but we have a new Husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is able to help us and support us in these exercises. Then we find in chapter 8 we come to the recognition of the Spirit as a new power. We cannot walk in newness of life without the power of the Spirit. These are persons who are really identified with Christ in His death. They are committed to the Lord Jesus in His death, “that we should no longer serve sin” but we should serve God. Well, there is much in the chapter but I just want to go on to the thought of there being fruit, something that has been acquired. It says, “But now, having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness”. The believer is acquiring substance, it is “your fruit unto holiness”. This is needed if we are to serve God. How can we serve God without holiness? God is holy, “your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”. That is the end in view.
We understand from the teaching in this epistle that it does not take us into the land, we are going through the wilderness, but the land is before us. Eternal life is enjoyed in the land, you enjoy it while you are here. It is known in the land and this is the moral road to it. In Christianity we are not like the children of Israel who went through the wilderness, and then came into the land. With us, dear brethren, we have the privilege of being in the land and coming back into the wilderness, which gives us power in the wilderness, but I think the point is that there is a moral road to come into the gain and joy of eternal life. It is God’s gift, we do not earn it or merit it, but there is a moral road to come into the gain and joy of it.
I want to speak now of the Lord’s supper. This is something that the Lord intended believers to take in remembrance of Himself. That is why it is stressed in Paul’s teaching. 1 Corinthians 11 gives us the final word as to the Lord’s supper as it was given to Paul. We get teaching as to it in the gospels and elsewhere in Scripture, but this is the final word as to the Lord’s supper. It is something that Paul received from the Lord. We spoke in the reading of what Paul says in Thessalonians as to the rapture as the word of the Lord, he received it from the Lord. This is something else that the apostle received from the Lord. He did not receive it from the twelve who were with the Lord in the inauguration of the Supper; he received it directly from the Lord in glory. He says, “For I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread”.
The night in which He was delivered up was the background to the Lord Jesus setting on the Supper—think of the pressure that was upon the Lord at that time; the betrayer with Him at the table on the night in which He was delivered up. What feelings must have entered into the Lord’s soul at that time, into His heart! He loved His own yet He sets on this occasion where there would be the remembrance of Himself in the time of His absence, in the time of His rejection.
The children of Israel fell into gross sin, when they said, “this Moses ... we do not know what is become of him” (Exodus 32: 1), they made a golden calf. They did not avail themselves of the provision that Moses had left with them, they were unsatisfied with it. I would suggest, beloved brethren, that what we are speaking of as to baptism and the Lord’s supper is among the things the Lord has provided for us in His absence to keep us, and that there should be something for Himself, in remembrance of Himself. That is to keep Him livingly before us in our affections so that we do not forget Him, and His love. So it was in the night in which the Lord Jesus was delivered up, the Lord Jesus; it is an assembly title that brings Himself before us. What is the Lord Jesus to me, what is He to you? No one can say Lord Jesus except in the power of the Spirit; that is not the mere words, but to be able to say it with real meaning by the Spirit.
So Paul says, “the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you”. Let us ponder the Lord’s body, “which is for you”. We break the bread, that means that we participate in the Supper, appropriating the fact that the Lord has been into death. He says, “This is my body, which is for you”, His own body, His personal body, the body in which He did the will of God.
From the account in Matthew the Lord’s supper is brought before us as food, something to appropriate. “This is my body, which is for you”. Let us contemplate that. Do we just take the Supper in a mere outward form? It is easy to do that, but just think of what is involved in that body. It is for the assembly, it is for the saints of the assembly. It is the body in which He did the will of God. It would help us to be here for God’s will, not our own, as we think of it. He has given it in love; in one of the gospels it says, “This is my body which is given for you”, (Luke 22: 19), but here it says, “This is my body, which is for you”. It is for us to take account of it, beloved brethren.
Then He says, “this do in remembrance of me”. In partaking of the loaf we do it in remembrance of Him, not remembering Him in His death, but remembering Him. We never forget that He has been into death, these emblems before us speak to us of that, “This is my body, which is for you—this do in remembrance of me”. Joseph said to the cupbearer, “Only bear a remembrance with thee of me when it goes well with thee”, Genesis 40: 14. Then it says, “In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood—this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me”. Mr James Taylor emphasised, particularly in his latter ministry, that it was the Lord’s supper. We have that Person before us, it is not the Father’s supper or the Spirit’s supper, it is the Lord’s supper. I think this is the only place in Scripture where the remembrance of the Lord Jesus is spoken of in connection with the cup. It is in view of the remembrance of Him that we have Him livingly before us. You can see, beloved brethren, how it will promote in us the desire to see Him and to be with Him. If we are left here we will have this experience tomorrow, maybe He will come for us before but, if not, He will come to us. Where there are suited conditions the Lord will come to us; then what a blessed privilege we have to enter into the service of God.
It says, “For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come”. That is a public matter. Persons can take account of us partaking of the emblems. They cannot take account of what is going on in our minds in the remembrance of the Lord Jesus. That is a private matter between the lovers of the Lord Jesus and Himself, but they can take account of the fact that we partake of the Supper and that is to announce His death until He come. What a solemn thing it is, that the Lord Jesus died here. He died in this scene, and it is a reminder to the world that He did die. They crucified Him, cast Him out, but He is coming to reign. He is coming here into His rights, to reign. I know the Supper will not take place after the Lord comes for us, but the force of this scripture is, that the One who died here is to have His death announced as the One who is coming publicly to reign. He will come with His saints then. He is coming to us while we are here, and He is coming for us, but when He comes publicly to reign He will come with His saints. What a day that is, the myriads of the saints will be with Him.
Well there is a warning in this scripture about partaking of the Supper unworthily. I do not want to go into the detail of it, but a warning is there, and the Lord acted in a disciplinary way because things were not right in Corinth; there were divisions, there were parties. We cannot rightly partake of the Lord’s supper where there are divisions. That is a thing to consider solemnly. We really have to judge and prove ourselves before the Lord and thus eat, eat of the loaf and drink of the cup in remembrance of Himself.
I trust, beloved brethren, that I have said something that will bring before us the force of these ordinances, that they are not just dead ordinances. Christendom has made them that, but let us keep the Lord Jesus before us; to be committed to Him in His death and baptism and committed to Him in the breaking of bread. There are things in this epistle which lead up to it, the truth of the fellowship of His death in chapter 10, which does not give us the order of the Lord’s supper, but brings it before us as having a bearing upon us in fellowship in our ordinary daily circumstances of life. Then you get the truth as to headship, why sisters have their heads covered, and why brothers do not have their heads covered, and why the sisters have the token. That is another thing to think about, it comes into the scripture. These are all things in relation to the public order of the saints in view of there being right conditions for the Lord’s supper, so that He might come to us. May we be helped and stimulated in these things, in the Lord’s name.
Address at Dundee
12 August 2006